


A Ghost's Whisper

by CassanderRoshack



Category: Case of Amontillado, POE Edgar Allan - Works
Genre: Canon Continuation, Case of Amontillado - Freeform, Continuation, F/M, First Person, Gen, Other, edgar allan poe - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 07:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1735592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassanderRoshack/pseuds/CassanderRoshack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(A narrative of a continuation of The Case of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe. Short story.)</p><p>Montresor leaves the catacombs where he's killed Fortunato. He see's that god wasn't the only one who saw his crime.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Ghost's Whisper

I had done it. Finally those long hours of planning and listening to his foul mouth were done. I would never again have to hear the drunkard mumble underneath his breath about my family and how I was an idiot for not taking his deals or doing business with him. Finally! As I rose from my family’s crypt, I did not feel the weight the church had warned me about if I went through with this idea in my confession. They claimed my soul would break apart and god would cast me into hell. Instead, I felt relief as I walked into the sunlight again. What could god do to me when I had proven that I, too, could cast a man into what he had deemed his own hell? As I walked up the stairs, I heard the sound of the carnival. Joyful music played and all the attendees wore masks. I looked up from my steady gait to see a woman in a white dress in the near dusk. Her black cat mask stared at me; it felt as if the eyes saw straight through my soul. Then she turned away into the crowd. I felt a stutter in my heart before I gave chase.

             I ran through the milling people trying not to cause a stir. Only pausing shortly to take a mask from a stand; tossing a gold coin to the vender before giving chase again. I knew if I was asked by someone why I was running after a woman I could not just say she stole my wallet and be done with it. The people danced around me as I waded in through the seeming armada on a stormy sea shifting from side to side. The floor seemed to tilt and I nearly fell. My heart hammered in my chest like the tool I had used to pound bricks into place perhaps not even an hour ago. I caught sight of her long white dress- the frills magnificent with her long, black hair- and if things were not dire I might have even asked her for a dance. I finally managed to catch her around the wrist.

            She yelped in pain and turned toward me, “Release me!” She yelled and tried to pull away. There were no onlookers just yet and I pulled her to me; my long-nosed, bird-like mask hiding my face as we shrank back into the darkness of an alleyway.

“I will not! Stay still for I have a question that will not wait.” I pinned her up against the wall and removed my mask to better speak with her. She hissed like an angry cat; much like her own mask as I removed it. I had to pause as the action caused my heart to pick up pace once more. She was frighteningly beautiful with bright red lips and eyes that made me ponder if god himself had painted them. Her nose was long with high cheek bones and her skin was pale. The dark curls framed her face well and I eased my grip.  “Why did you run from me?”

She shook her head. “You looked as if you were a man who killed people.” The woman snapped at him and he tightened his hold again. She winced and lowered her gaze.

            “I didn’t see anything. Your friend went down and you came back up. He’s still there. I saw nothing more and certainly nothing less.” I narrowed my eyes at her before nodding.

“Nothing more, I’m sure. Though I ask if you would accompany me to dinner. For… payment… for me giving chase and frightening you.” There was a pause before she laughed.

“Is this the usual way you acquire dates for your evening or was I just special? I don’t need your payment. My master would be upset if I went out for dinner with a man I did not know.”

I paused, “You’re a servant?” She nodded and straightened her garments with a bit of a huff.

“And you did not frighten me, good sir. I just ask to be left alone.”  I stared at her for a moment before taking her by the arm.

“Show me your master and I’ll buy your freedom. Dinner afterward.” There was only a moment of struggle before she relaxed and looked up at me with knowledgeable eyes that shone with a hidden intelligence. This one worried me more greatly than I would have liked to admit.

            Her master was a portly man whom I knew from a luncheon not so long ago. He was kind though charged me more than average- most likely because of this one’s beauty. She did not speak through the transaction but watched me and turned her gaze to the way we had come. I had her deed and handed it to her immediately after receiving it. The paper went inside her tight corset and she turned; leading to me running after her again. “What about dinner?” I beseeched her and she looked back.

“I never agreed to dinner nor you buying me my freedom. But since you have done one of those things, I’d rather leave now and start a life I have been kept from than sit across from a man I do not know.” I had to roll my eyes a bit at her stubbornness. Beautiful people always came with a high price. Hers happened to be that she was opinionated. After much time, I convinced her to join me. I needed to know what she knew. All she saw and not just a phrase of "I saw nothing less and nothing more". Perhaps I would find her a tomb beside the drunkard.

             At dinner she spoke softly, “I know why I’m here.” She shifted her long garment by the sleeve to rest on the highchair’s well-detailed wooden arms and I raised an eyebrow in her direction.

“Because a woman has to eat?” There was a soft laugh that barely reminded me of tinkling bells. I met her crystalline blue gaze.

The woman sat back. “You want to know what I saw. And I know what you did. Though I won’t tell. Men kill every day.”

I sat back as well with my wine glass in hand. The liquid reminded me of blood. Or perhaps a jewel in a king's crown. “They do. Though how do you know I’m a killer?”

Her shoulders went up and then down before she drank slowly from her own glass. My eyes held with her own like a witch. “He didn’t come back. And I believe the police will not find him if I was to speak of it. So what good would it do?”

I nodded and gestured outward like she had made the point that canceled the conversation completely. “What good would it do indeed….” It did not take long to finish the meal and we walked outside; silence filling the air between us. “What is your name?” I asked and she shrugged.

“Servant. And you?”

I shrugged as she had done. “Good sir.” The gesture brought a smile to her face.

“Farewell then, good sir. Careful that you aren’t watched by a cat in the night.”

I grunted my acknowledgement before turning and calling after her as the night air swirled around us. “You as well, servant girl. Curiosity kills the cat.”

            As the night rolled on, I grew increasingly unsettled. What if she told someone? What if she went back to the catacombs? At first I stood guard outside the entrance to the catacombs with my family name written at the top of it but soon I realized how foolish I must have looked. Not long after I found myself in a dark brothel kept alight by a few candles and filled with whispers of people discussing the carnival. Much to my distress, I heard a familiar voice and turned my head slightly to see the two women sitting not three seats to my right. The servant girl from before was discussing how now that she had her freedom she would leave this place forever. Another lady- far less beautiful- who seemed to know her well raised a shoulder and dropped it down. “Why do you not stay?”

The woman licked her ruby lips before shifting. “I know something I shouldn’t that weighs heavily on my heart.” I grew more nervous than I had yet that night and found my hand inching toward a knife for bread left abandoned on  my table.

            Yet she did not speak of our little secret and merely shook her head before throwing down bronze coins at the barkeeper who nodded to her. The other lady asked her what she was doing and the far less homely female shook her head again. “Clearing my mind with cold air.” With that, I followed her out of the bar. The knife was slipped into my pocket to make sure if she went where I supposed she was going I could end this problem at the start. I was soon proven right when we returned where I had been standing guard not so long ago. I had swallowed when I saw her enter the catacombs with a lantern borrowed from the boats nearby. Again I found myself moving in her wake; silent as possible. I wanted her to find nothing. Perhaps if that was to happen her mind would be clear and I would make more of an appearance in her free life than I had before. Perhaps another meal together. My mind was getting away from me! I did not need a woman at a time like this.

            The farther she went the more certain I felt she was lost until I heard her whispering into the bricks where I had committed my crime. I went still. A cold hand I could only relate to death’s fingers or the breath of a demon made my skin crawl as it traced my spine. I watched her with my eyes wide in the low light as she kneeled down and tried to remove the bricks before speaking louder. “Don’t worry, sir. I’ll bring back help. Just hang on. Just hang on!” I nearly ran at her then- knife in hand. Luckily, I saw the problem that would cause if I handled the situation in such a manner. If I killed her, her friend would make fuss. Not to mention hiding a body would be difficult in this darkness even with a light. Why not make her look like a fool instead? As soon as her footsteps faded I was digging at the wall with the knife. I could move the body by the time the police came. They would see the place as an empty tomb and think she was a crazed servant girl. Perhaps even arrest her for causing disturbance of the peace. I smiled at the thought and clawed with my bare nails when the knife broke between brick and dirt.

            I was too late. They came up behind me shining lights of their own and the woman cried out in terror at my crazed look. “He killed him! Put him in the wall!” I stood straight like a startled animal and much like said beast started running. One came after me and I was pushed to the ground; arrested in the grave of my ancestors. They kicked the wall down in front of me and made yells of their own. A terrible smell hit my nostrils and I dared peek at my handy work. Fortunato hung by his wrists. Had been eaten alive by the rats that were hungry as the people in war. He was mutilated in such a horrid way I had to laugh. I stared straight at the woman as the police whispered amongst themselves that they did not know whether it was the alcohol, rats or starvation that had gotten him. More than likely the rats- though he had been dead for a day at least. I did not care how he died, though I found it strange she knew where he was. I spat the words at her and struggled hard enough that my golden pocket watch fell out of my coat and landed at her feet. “Witch! I’ll get my revenge on you as well! Just wait!”

            Her pale fingers picked up the pocket watch and examined it as the police dragged me away by my arms. She smiled at me for a moment before looking back at the pocket watch that I knew could buy her a house in certain neighborhoods. “Good sir, when you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.”

 


End file.
